THUNDER: Pirela on fire after coming back from injury

TRENTON — Over the last two weeks, Jose Pirela has gone through a re-birth at the plate. And it all started with a 95 mile per hour heater that clocked him square in the helmet.

“Everybody says, now that I’ve been hit, I can hit,” Pirela said through teammate and translator Abraham Almonte. “The hit by pitch made me better.”

The beaning, which came on the fastest pitch Portland lefty Chris Martin threw on April 11, kept Pirela out for a month and a half while he dealt with concussion-like symptoms. Since he’s been back, last year’s shortstop and this year’s utilityman has found the barrel with shocking regularity.

It took him a week after his return to knock off the rust, he says, but now that it’s gone, he’s shining like never before.

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Since his return on May 24, Pirela, a career .265 hitter over six seasons in the minors, is hitting a sparkling .407/.455/.576 with four doubles, two longballs and eight RBIs in 17 games.

And while he won’t maintain a .390 average for the rest of the year, there are signs that the 22-year-old Venezuelan is finding his way in his second tour of the Eastern League.

Manager Tony Franklin believes Pirela’s hot stretch didn’t start this year, but rather toward the second half of 2011. And while the numbers weren’t very good, Franklin saw something there that made him believe this year would be different.

“If you remember, he had a pretty good second half of the season last year, he hit like crazy in the second half of the season,” Franklin said. “Hopefully that was a carryover. That was his first full season at this level. He’s had a chance to see the league. He kind of knew what to expect, and we expected him to jump out with a pretty good start, and unfortunately he got injured.”

The extended look he’s getting, however, wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the truckload of injuries his teammates have sustained.

If Walter Ibarra is healthy, he’s getting the everyday reps at shortstop. If Kevin Mahoney were healthy, he’d be getting the reps at the hot corner. And if Melky Mesa were given the go-ahead to take his sore shoulder into the field, there’d be no room for Pirela in an outfield crowded with Mesa and a pair of Almontes.

More impressive even, Pirela has found offensive consistency while jumping all around the diamond, from second base, to third base to left field, where he saw time in spring training but hadn’t played in a professional game until this season outside of the Venezuelan Winter League.

“I feel great because I prepared in the offseason to play more than one position, and I came ready to do that,” Pirela said. “In the United States (I’ve been primarily an infielder), but in Venezuela in winter ball I usually play the outfield and infield. I don’t normally play the outfield, but when a situation happens where they need somebody, I play the outifield.”

After spending all of last season as a shortstop, where he committed the bulk of his league-worst 39 errors, Pirela has been forced to become versatile, and that’s just the way his manager likes it.

“Yes, he made a lot of errors at shortstop last year,” Franklin said. “His value might be doing what he’s doing now: Second base, left field, third base and some shortstop from time to time, I don’t know, but we’re using him in that capacity, and he seems to be quite settled in his role right now.”

Once Ibarra and Mesa and Mahoney get healthy, Pirela will probably see his playing time diminish. As long as those three are out, however, he’s going to do whatever he can to make the choice to put him back on the bench as difficult as possible.